- Fitbit users are complaining about Google Health’s food tracking
- The AI tool has reportedly been logging inaccurate metrics
- One user described the mistakes as ‘almost dangerous’
If you’ve used any kind of artificial intelligence (AI) tool, chances are you might have seen it hallucinate wildly inaccurate answers to your simple questions. Most of the time the results are largely harmless, but what about when these problems start having the potential to affect your health and wellbeing? That’s what many Fitbit users have recently noticed, and it could have serious consequences if it carries on unchecked.
The issue centers on Google Health, an AI helper that has been integrated into many of the best Fitbit wearables. It’s designed to understand your health metrics and make helpful suggestions to improve your health. Unfortunately, many Fitbit users have noticed it is doing the exact opposite when it comes to logging their nutritional intake.
Posting on Reddit, for example, one user said that Google Health’s food logging was “so inaccurate it’s almost dangerous.” Describing their problem, they outlined how Google Health drastically overestimated the number of calories in a serving of eggs while simultaneously underreporting the calorific intake of a portion of Greek yogurt. “On what planet is this level of deviation acceptable for a health product?,” they asked, before adding: “To make matters worse, digging into the food database it is full of incorrect nutrition facts.”
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They’re not alone in their irritation, as the Reddit thread is full of similarly frustrated Google Health users. “This is a neverending fight,” said one who lamented that the AI often neglects to add foods when asked, then does so inaccurately when it finally decides to log them.
Another frustrated user has given up on Google’s AI entirely, reporting that: “I have been trying SO HARD to give this the benefit of the doubt, but the hassle of getting nutrition right in the app finally broke me … It also randomly changes my workouts, imported data from other systems, etc. I’ve honestly never been more disappointed in a Google product in my life.”
Another Google Health hallucination
Unfortunately, this is far from the only problem we’ve seen reported when it comes to Google Health. The switch from Fitbit’s previous health-tracking app to an AI-native alternative in the form of Google Health has brought with it a slew of complaints in a range of different areas.
That includes the AI giving users ‘unhinged’ fitness advice, telling ‘nonstop lies’ about their workout sessions, and simply being ‘unbelievably bad.’ The feature has received so much heat that even Google appears to have acknowledged its flaws, with a recent update allowing you to hide the AI tool completely.
It’s a serious reminder of the problems that can arise when an AI tool starts working in potentially damaging areas like health and nutrition. While the original poster’s example of eggs and yogurt may just result in some annoyingly inaccurate metrics, the problems could be a lot worse if their health depended on specific consumption levels or if allergens were involved.
If you have any kind of risk factors when it comes to food and nutrition, it might be a good idea to treat your Fitbit’s Google Health AI with a strong dose of skepticism — or to avoid it altogether for now.
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